Typically, even in a magical, transformative city like Marielda, a simple hiccup would not suffice to make buildings shudder to their foundation. Nothing was typical about Lexal’s current size though. He’d been turned into an enormous dragon within a span of half an hour, sitting literally atop most of the fantasy district of Marielda. He squinted down at the tiny people surrounding him down at ground level, guards prodding his bottom-heavy body after they climbed over the surrounding debris. A stray twitch of his thick tail sent it smashing into a home; Lexal flinched and muttered a bashful apology.

Worse still, he had no idea where to find the fox responsible. That devious fox called himself ‘The Great Wizard K.K.’ but he’d disappeared shortly after administering the first dragon TF potion. Lexal crossed his green, scaly arms across his chest and huffed. A small gout of flame escaped his nose and flame-broiled a bird in seconds.

Just what was he expected to do now?

The Great Wizard K.K. laughed as the city quaked.

He nodded inside the black, hooded robe covering his vulpine features. Standing atop this skyscraper, miles away, afforded him a perfect view to watch. This experiment was a massive success. Not even in his wildest dreams had the wizard planned for Lexal to get that large. He mentally filed away his Potion of Greater Dragon Polymorph recipe for future use on other, unsuspecting victims- er, friends.

There was still the issue of what to do next though. He couldn’t really leave Lexal atop the city like this; his apothecary was beneath that great, round dragon’s rump. How would he get back to work brewing more magic if he couldn’t get inside? No, that simply wouldn’t do. The fox pulled his hood back, revealing to the reader’s abject surprise that it was none other than Kit.

“Maybe this is a chance to try a few more experiments,” he whispered. “I’ll have that overgrown lizard back to proper size in a snap.” Kit pulled a potion out of a pocket sewn into his cloak. It was labeled ‘For Emergencies (Or Fun) Only’ and glowed a light blue. A cork popped free and fell to the floor. A moment later the empty potion bottle fell too, and Kit’s cloak ripped off his shoulders. There wasn’t much time to get down to the ground; Enlarge Fox potions are notoriously powerful. So rather than try taking the stairs, Kit simply dangled his paws off the edge of the building and let himself grow. Metal creaked beneath the fox’s rapidly expanding bulk. His swung his paws forward and back patiently waiting for them to reach the ground. His tail snaked backward across the roof, disturbing the flock of pigeons sitting at the other end of the building. Any of this might be enough to make an inexperienced giant nervous for the building’s structural integrity. Kit, however, knew exactly what he was doing.

Fifty feet of fox hopped off the building and landed with a THOOM, cracking pavement and crushing more than a few cars between his toes. Kit brushed the dust off his blue shirt and khaki pants, and casually strode down the city street as if out for an errand. Thud, thud, thud… Lexal was several miles away but now it would be a snap to reach the overgrown dragon. Even now Kit could feel the Enlarge Fox potion still working. By the time he reached the edge of the city, he was towering head and shoulders above even the largest of offices. Time for another potion test.

Lexal’s eyebrows rose as he saw… and felt the fox approach. His eyes went wide as plates as Kit loomed over him, easily five times as tall.

“Woah. Where’d you come from Kit?”

“Over there,” Kit said with a shrug, pointing to the trail of footprints leading from a bustling metropolis portion of the city toward the fantasy themed district. Each print was progressively bigger than the last. Much, much bigger. Lexal wasn’t totally sure Kit had stopped growing yet either. He gulped, smiling nervously.

“Sooo… you wouldn’t happen to have seen a wizard lately, have you?” he asked. “I just got turned into this big dragon and I wanna get back to norm-”

But Kit cut him off. “Nope, no idea what you mean. Haven’t seen any handsome, powerful, dashing wizard foxes lately. But I have seen a dragon that is entirely too large. And sitting on my apothecary.” The enormous fox plucked the dragon up by his fattened tail, dangling him in front of eyes as wide as stadiums. Lexal was just about to put two and two together about that ‘my apothecary’ comment when Kit reached into his pocket and pulled… something tiny out, held gingerly between two redwood tree thick digits.

“Open wide,” he said. Lexal didn’t have time to process what Kit meant before he felt a small glass vial drop onto his tongue. The dragon swallowed reflexively.

“What was that?”

Kit smiled. A devious, foxy smile. “An antidote. Untested, but now you get to try it out.”

Lexal started to sweat. That didn’t sound good. His eyes crossed as the bitter potion started affecting him, causing him to shiver all over. With a puff of purple smoke the dragon was replaced with a much lighter version of himself. Kit puckered his lips and blew the away the smoke, only to yelp when Lexal nearly blew away as well. The fox held tight to his prisoner’s tail as he realized why Lexal felt so light. The dragon’s whole body had turned shiny, translucent, and completely hollow. He’d gone from a giant dragon smothering cities to a lightweight, giant, balloon dragon. Lexal narrowly avoided flying halfway across Marielda from Kit’s breath alone.

“How does this help me?” Lexal asked, his voice squeaking slightly now that his vocal cords had turned into stretchy rubber. He floated slowly up into the air, until he was being held down by Kit’s fingers rather than dangled from them.

“Hm. That must not have been right. On the bright side, it did get you off the apothecary though. Hang on,” Kit mumbled in a voice deep enough to blow clouds apart. He flicked another potion into the dragonballoon’s mouth. Lexal almost had enough time to complain this time before another puff of that same purple smoke covered his body. This time Kit learned his lesson to not blow away balloon creatures. It dissipated a minute later without Kit’s help; Lexal sneezed, blowing all the smoke right into Kit’s face. This fortunate accident gave Lexal a better view of whatever transformative magic had been thrust upon him.

Thankfully this time the change was a welcome one. He began to shrink back down to his ordinary size. Lexal floated slowly down to stand in the palm of Kit’s city-sized hand. As he looked around, regaining his bearings, Lexal squinted at the edge of Kit’s palm. Was it… getting further away?

“Hey Kit. I think you’re still growing,” Lexal yelled up at his captor. The fox’s ears twitched, nearly knocking a helicopter out of the air; it was the only way the dragon could tell someone as tall as Kit heard.

“Could be,” Kit boomed. “Or you could still be shrinking. Hard to tell.” As Kit watched, the little balloon creature in his palm visibly shrank away. Yup, looks like the Shrink potion still had some concentration problems. That should only have counteracted the Potion of Greater Dragon Polymorph. But even as the enormous fox watched, he saw the little green speck shrink further, out of sight.

“WHEN DOES THIS POTION WEAR OFF ANYWAY?” the dragon said, nervously twitching his tail. The soft, leathery fox pads that acted as the ground was looking more and more like an unending plane of black.

Kit shrugged. “Eh. Dunno. Untested potions could make you a foot tall, a centimeter tall, or even smaller. I don’t mind though. It’s much easier to keep track of a smaller sized dragon, if you ask me.” He stuffed his hand into the pocket of his khakis and left the tiny dragon to fend for himself. Portable and quiet; now Lexal was sure to never get lost.

The problem with that assumption is that Kit didn’t realize exactly how small Lexal was shrinking. Already the space was becoming visible between fibers on the khakis. In a few short moments the dragonballoon was falling between those fibers, falling out of Kit’s pants, falling the long distance all the way to Kit’s paws. Lexal landed on the ground, atop a pebble easily as large as a two story house.

He looked up, way up, seeing the rest of the world dwarf him. Kit was big, sure, but even if he’d been on a normal sized person now… well, it would be like picking out a grain of sand on a beach. And just as he got used to the perspective, he shivered. His whole body tensed as if someone was squeezing him. The world shifted anew, until pebble was less a building and more a landscape, wide enough to house an entire city of folks his size. Lexal shivered and began running for the edge, hoping beyond hope that he might be able to get off this rock. He had to get far enough away that he might find someone that would hear him… but it wasn’t working. He’d simply gone too small. He’d been running for half an hour and traveled perhaps a millimeter.

Lexal gulped. Bacteria and viruses might be a problem if the shrinking continued. He didn’t have his weapon anymore to defend himself either. Balloons aren’t well known for their durability. But on the positive side, if he kept shrinking even further, atoms couldn’t possibly be as dangerous to deal with.

Maybe that Great Wizard K.K. would be willing to trade for a Growth potion… or another of those Polymorph potions. Assuming anyone was ever able to see him down here.